Improvement in felted fabeios



MOSES A. JOHNSON, OF LVVELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

Letters Patent No. '73,727, dated J'amtafg/ 28, 1868.

IMPROVBMBN'IIN FE'LTED FABRICS.

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TO ALLWHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known thatI I, MOSS A. JOHNSON, of Lowell, in the county ofMiddlesex, and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain newandyuseful Improvements in Felt-Wool Cloth, made from side-drawings, socalled; and I do hereby declare the following to b a full, clear, 'andexact description ofthe same, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, naa-Icing a part of this specication, in which- Figure 1represents a series ofthe side-drawings, or rovings, laid side by side,preparatory to felting.

Figure 2 represents a section, taken across a series of cside-drawings,or rovings, as they appear after boing rolled or slighted felted.

Figure 3 represents a specimen of the felt-cloth, as it appears whenfinished.

Figure 4 represents the appearance of a specimen of cloth made by layingthe side-drawings or ro'vings across each other in two directions. l

In figs. 1,2, and`3, I have shown the side-drawings or rovings, as ofdifferent colors, which colors appear in order -in'the finished cloth.That shown in hg'. 4 is madeof sidedrawingsf or rovings, of uniformcolor.

Ordinarily, felt-cloth is produced by forming a hat from the .cardsdirectly upon long endless aprons,'layer a after layer, to get therequired thickness.'- To overcome certain objections to felt-cloth, madeas above stated,- vthere have been various devices essayed to place theibres'of wool as they leave the card at angles to each other.

Felted cloth, as ordinarilyformed, is vmorespongy and elastic in onedirection than in the other, and, when once stretched in the weakestdirection, will not readily come back into pla-ce again.

Side-drawings are the productief an ordinary wool-card, taken cillin astrand or roving continuously at the side of thecurd, and wound uponbobbins. They are the product of the breakef cards, each set of woollencards being composed of 'three distinct kinds, called irst andsecondbreakerfand inisher." The product of a nisher is ordinarily aseries of smaller -ropings o rsrovings. Y The product of the breaker"cards is put into one large side-drawing, and a number of these are fedinto the finishen and placed usu= ally upon a frame or creel. I I I Myinvention consists in the-manufacture of a felt-cloth,I so called, byforming the'hat of a series of side= drawings or rovings, laid crosswiseby any/suitable mechanism, or merely run in lengthwise,1 from spools orcreeis, or-otherwise. Y

The advantages gained by my mode of manufacture are many, and among themare, more uniform elas= ticity of the cloth, (the libres/of wool beingmore interlaced at dilerent angles capacity to form any width of goods,independent of the width of the card; great economy of space, bydispensing with the use'ot` the long, continuous aprons, and feedingdirect to the felting-machine; also, the combining of various colors.

In g. I, a a a represent azseries of side-drawings or rovings, laidAside by side. These side-drawings or -rovingspass from the card througha revolving trumpet at the side of the card,v and thence between rollerssuilieiently weightedto draw the roving through the trumpet. 'Fh/ey arelthen wound upon spools into balls,l and in this condition also pressed.The result is a ribbon, instead of acylindrical thread, as it leaves thetrumpet. A series-ot' these ribbons is put or laid lin juxtaposition, toform the felt, and is subjected, in taking, to a compression orcompressure of the-platen or felting-plate. This compression causes therovirigs to overlap as ribbolis would, and as seen atb b Z), de., iniig. 2. vIn ordinary manipulation, vthese side-drawings or'rovA ingswould not need to be so compressed at the card, butwould, if receivedintc :amsor boxes, he more cylindrical. Even then, however, there wouldbe an interlepping, but not so marked in one direction, but producingmore uniformity, und a more desirable result. It is this overlapping, inits soft, spongy condition, which gives the evenness or uniformity tothe bat. l Otherwise it would be ridgy, orfull ofridges and depressions.

When the feited cloth is composed ef side-drwings" or Arovings ofdiil'erent-colormit will, 4when nished, show the overluppings, as seenat c c c, iig. 3. If' the felted cloth be composed of lsidedrawings orrovings of a single color, whether luid lengthwise, or lengthwise a'n'dcrosswise, the overlappings .willnot show, though they exist. In lig.2i, a piece of cloth is represent-ed, as made iviththe ribbons-'laidboth lengthwise and cross wise, and of rovings 0I" a uniform shade orcolor, and in thisl'nb inalfks or lines are seen other than those givento it by the elting-machine.

For light cloths a series of rovings might be used, asthey are deliveredfrom the finishen but I prefer to take the side-dr'a.\vings" from thebreaker-cards. The same -piocess may be used in the manufacture ofhat-'b-odies, Balmoral skirts, or other irregululy-slmped appa-rel madeovei` gi former. 4And to form these the "side-dmwings or rovings `wouldneed' to be folded in layers oveithe cone', or Former, or mould, to make-tlie Y bat, or wound'around the cone or former in the form ola helix,with abutting onwel-lapping edges. v

I Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim thetzinA asnew, and desir'e to secure .by Letters Patent, is l The manufacture offelt-cloth, 'by forming the bat, and as it is fed to the felter, of aseries of side-drawings i or l'ovings, luid vtogether lengthwise orcrosswise, o1 lengthwise and crosswise beth, and run in from spools,

*n ereels, or otherwise, substantiallyas herein described andrepresented.

MOSES A. JOHNSON.

Witnesses;

JOHN K.- CHASE, F. W. SARQENT.

